Google exec says immigration changes would help economy

WASHINGTON - The executive chairman at Google is urging Congress to increase the number of high-skilled work visas made available to foreigners and to deal with other immigration issues later on.

Eric Schmidt spoke Wednesday at the American Enterprise Institute. He says he believes the United States is better off having more immigrants, not less.

But Schmidt's particularly focused on allowing more immigrants into the U.S. with specialized technical skills, saying that it doesn't make sense for the country to educate immigrants at its top universities and then not keep them here. He says they go home and create new companies.

Schmidt says that increasing the number of H-1B visas would grow the economy, but some worry that companies will use the visas to replace American workers and reduce expenses.